Westpark Marina, the third largest in Auckland, has been sold with its associated businesses for $18.5 million to Simon Herbert, property investor and director of Bayswater Marina.
The marina is 11km to the west of Auckland's CBD, on the edge of the upper Waitemata Harbour. Along with the marina, Herbert has also acquired the Westpark haul-out and yacht service facility and the vendors' dredging business; through his company Dredging New Zealand.
Westpark has 592 berths ranging from 10 to 18 metres, travel haulage facilities of 75 and 35 tonnes and has a maintenance hardstand for 55 boats. It includes a retail shopping village consisting of 11 stores as well as various high-stud industrial buildings and the marina administration management office. Auckland Transport also runs a commuter ferry service from the marina to the Auckland CBD.
John Binning of Jones Lang LaSalle, who brokered the sale, says it was a rare market opportunity. "We knew that it would generate considerable interest from potential investors," Binning says. "With a net income of around $1.7 million per year from the marina and land assets and as the only marina in the Auckland area being actively marketed for sale, we felt it would sell easily during this marketing campaign. Simon's existing portfolio and experience in the marine industry made him the ideal purchaser."
The marina site was a centre for the heavy clay industry with the first brickworks being started in the 1860s. The tidal banks of the Upper Waitemata Harbour, with their fine clay deposits, were common sites for manufacturing and firing bricks and pipes which were then transported by barge to Auckland.
